A Senate rewrite of the most consequential boxing legislation in a generation landed Thursday, setting up a fight in Congress before changes can reach a boxer’s contract.
The Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, a bipartisan bill introduced Thursday and spearheaded by lawmakers on the Senate Commerce Committee, Chair Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, and Sen. Jacky Rosen, Nevada Democrat, mirrors its House counterpart.
The House’s companion bill, which passed the lower chamber, would create a new professional boxing system called Unified Boxing Organizations, or UBOs, which would operate independently of sanctioning organizations and be regulated by state athletic commissions.
UBOs would be voluntary, league-style alternatives for boxers who choose to join.
Fighters would be able to sign exclusive contracts, including promotional rankings and titles and health, safety and pay stipulations, such as a national per-round minimum payment.
In the Senate’s version, a fighter’s first contract with a UBO would be capped at three years, with the option to extend in future contracts, with a longer negotiation period.
Boxing is regulated by the 1996 Professional Boxing Safety Act and the 2000 Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, neither of which mentions UBOs.
Mr. Cruz said this bill will revive marquee matchups and strengthen protections for fighters.
“In the twentieth century, boxing produced household names and championship fights that captivated the country,” he said in a statement. “Past reforms improved the safety and fairness of the sport, but today, too many of the biggest matchups never happen because the sport is trapped in a fragmented system.”
Ms. Rosen told ESPN that her team actually met with Muhammad Ali’s grandson, professional boxer Nico Ali Walsh, before introducing the Senate version of the bill.
Mr. Walsh told her committee in April to keep federal boxing regulations as is under the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, which protects professional boxers from exploitative business practices, arguing that the new bill would remove fighters’ independence by allowing one entity to operate across management and matchmaking.
Ms. Rosen, however, said that since the passage of the Ali Act, the industry has continued to grow but has “sometimes struggled to keep up with an evolving combat sports landscape.”
“We need legislation to revitalize this storied American pastime, while empowering and protecting the boxers who make this sport great,” she said in a statement. “That is why our bipartisan bill keeps Ali Act protections in place and enhances health and safety protections for boxers, all while bringing boxing into the 21st century.”
TKO Holdings Group, the umbrella organization presiding over Zuffa Boxing, UFC and WWE, lobbied hard for the fully revived Ali Act that permits the creation of UBOs.
Before the Senate or the House version could become law, Congress would have to reconcile the two versions of the bill before a full vote could be taken.
